The trip to Spain, part two

We noticed immediately that the Spanish countryside was quite different to France, a lot dustier and the architecture was very Spanish, we passed houses that reminded me of early westerns actually, there was even one called “The Ponderosa” as in Bonanza if anybody still remembers that great TV program. It was fascinating driving through this alien landscape, very odd rock formations, lots of vast dusty plains. We stopped for lunch at a truck stop, had the usual bread and cheese and ham etc, then on to Barcelona. Pauline was working on her laptop, so she made good use of the five and a half odd hours it took us to get there. The driving was pretty easy really as we were on a two lane highway with a 120 kmh speed limit and not a lot of traffic. The biggest pain was having to stop every now and then to pay tolls. The cost of driving in Europe can be horrific. We would have spent about 25 euros on diesel getting to Barcelona I guess, and about 40 euros in tolls! Anyway, once we were approaching Barcelona, the traffic increased and in the city the driving was unbelievable. As Pauline said referring to the GPS display, ‘it looks like spaghetti.” There were motorways going everywhere, often we would drive into a tunnel going under other motorways, and of course we would lose the GPS signal when that happened, so we had to be on our toes when we emerged, as we were constantly exiting one motorway and joining another. Finally we left the motorway system and plunged into the city streets. There were cars everywhere, it was about 5pm and the Spanish make the French driving style look rather sedate! As we approached our hotel which was in an urban area near the hills, the roads became extremely narrow and often one way only, sometimes very steep. Still scooters were zooming past cutting in and out of the traffic, cars were tooting etc etc. I was very pleased when we finally found the hotel. However, when Pauline went to book us in and find out about parking, they had never heard of us. So it took her about 30 minutes of discussion until they found the relevant paperwork and we could put the car to bed and find our room. The room was on the 5th floor and had a balcony with an excellent view of the city, so that was a saving grace. Otherwise, I’d have to say it wasn’t the most organised hotel. We had a bit of a rest, then a walk to a local park, then had tapas for dinner at the hotel and a well earned drink!

Here’s a few photos – more on Barcelona next post – we loved it!